Spiritual concepts
Personality
It may be helpful to have the Model of the Mind open whilst reading this definition.
The Personality is the sum of all the attributes of the person, where those attributes distinguish us from other people [and things] and were also those we had on birth – solitary or gregarious, optimistic or pessimistic, competitive, scatty, and so on. These are the underlying permanent character traits that never change in us for that life. That make us from the moment we are born to the moment we die recognisable as us to anyone else.
It is where consciousness resides.
For more details on the relationship between the Higher spirit and Personality see Higher spirit and Personality.
Although we have shown the Ego in the model of the mind as a specific entity, it is more of a 'state' than a thing - a strong sense of one's separateness and self importance, and often a lack of empathy or understanding of other people's point of view.
There are very definite characteristics that make up our personality which are ‘turned on’ for some people and never surface in others.
We, as a person, are of course a composite of the Personality, the functions we have learnt, the temporary attributes we may have and the functions of the human being. The overall impression we give will be this composite.
The Personality - ignoring for a moment its descent into egoism - can also be defined by the following simple list.
Our personality is the big clue as to what our Destiny is, as our Personality is given to us to help fulfil our Destiny. As a human being we get every function that every other human being gets, we are all exactly the same functionally, but every personality is different, this subtle aspect, the personality is what tells us Why we are here.
Our Personality matches our Destiny. The harder the Challenge set, the more likely it is that we will be given a set of attributes that match the challenge. The hardest challenges of all bring forth what Emerson once called ‘men of character’. But women of character also exist. There are some born to be warriors, there are some born to be kind souls, whose Destiny is simply to be supportive to others.
From this comes the expression
KNOW THYSELF
If you know yourself you know your Destiny.
It is why astrology was so popular at the times mystics were a major part of our cultures. They helped you find out about your Personality and thus determine your Destiny. If you knew your Destiny and fulfilled it, then you had completed your job in the physical.
Everyone is unique, everyone was meant to be unique. All of us are ‘special’.
Note: Further information
1. There is additional detail in the section on the relationship between the Higher spirit, Personality and Memory
2. There is a section on how Personality affects our Character
3. There is a section on the way Personality affects our objectives and desires
4. The section describing where all these Personality traits come from together with a lot of examples can be found in Intelligences and Personality
Observations
For iPad/iPhone users: tap letter twice to get list of items.
- A Tibetan gomchen speaks on reincarnation
- Ahmad Ahsai, Shaykh - Kitab Sharh al-Ziyara - Seraphiel’s Trumpet
- Ahmad Ahsai, Shaykh - Kitab Sharh al-Ziyara - Zayd
- Aimée and Juliette see the past lives of Louis Gastin
- Al-Ghazzali - The Alchemy of Happiness - 02 Knowledge of the Self
- Al-Ghazzali - The Alchemy of Happiness - 03 Knowledge of the Self
- Al-Ghazzali - The Alchemy of Happiness - 21 Death, Personality and the immortal soul
- Alain Danielou – Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus – Living in harmony with the systems of the universe
- Alastair I. McIntosh - A Commentary on the ‘Christos’ Technique
- Amiel, Henri - On destiny and the Great Work
- Ansel Bourne goes AWOL
- Asvaghosha - The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana - Spiritual interactions
- Asvaghosha - The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana - The ego
- Asvaghosha - The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana - The evolving ego
- Asvaghosha - The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana - The Personality
- Asvaghosha - The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana - The problems of the 5 senses
- Bach, Dr Edward - Helping others on the road
- Bach, Dr Edward - On human destiny
- Bach, Dr Edward - There are saints at the factory bench
- Benjamin, Walter - Illuminations - Destiny
- Bhagavad Gita - Strung like pearls on a thread
- Bhagavad Gita - The Tyranny of the Ego
- Bhagavad Gita - There lives a Master in the hearts of men
- Blake, William - Love seeketh not itself to please
- Brunton, Dr Paul - A Search in Secret India - On Destiny
- Buddha - Diamond sutra - 03 Relinquishing the ego
- Buddha - Diamond sutra - 06 Faith
- Buddha - Diamond sutra - 09 Once returner
- Buddha - Diamond sutra - 14 Perfect Peace Lies in Freedom from Characteristic Distinctions
- Buddha - Diamond sutra - 17 Consummation of Incomparable Enlightenment
- Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz - The Third Day
- Chuang Tzu - In the beginning of Beginnings was Void of Void
- Chuang Tzu - Leaving things alone
- Clark, Fay Marvin – Into the Light – The aura and diagnosing illness using its changes
- Correspondences between The Enneagram and the Tarot – Enneagram No 1 and The High Priestess
- Correspondences between The Enneagram and the Tarot – Enneagram No 2 and The Empress
- Correspondences between The Enneagram and the Tarot – Enneagram No 3 and The Emperor
- Correspondences between The Enneagram and the Tarot – Enneagram No 5 and The Hermit
- Correspondences between The Enneagram and the Tarot – Enneagram No 6 and the Hierophant
- Correspondences between The Enneagram and the Tarot – Enneagram No 7 and The Fool
- Correspondences between The Enneagram and the Tarot – Enneagram No 8 and the Devil
- Correspondences between The Enneagram and the Tarot – Enneagram No 9 and the Magician
- Croll, Oswald - Preface of Signatures – 03 Preface
- Crowley - 08 Lust
- Crowley, Aleister - Book of Lies - Dust Devils
- Custance, John - Wisdom, Madness and Folly - On the depressive phase
- Custance, John - Wisdom, Madness and Folly - Unity with the All
- Damasio, Professor Antonio - Remembering
- Damasio, Professor Antonio - TED talk: The quest to understand consciousness
- Daniélou, Alain – The Way to the Labyrinth – Is our destiny foreseen
- Dao de Jing - Chapter 01
- Darwin, Charles - Dr W.Y. Evans-Wentz on Darwin's evolutionary theory
- David-Neel, Alexandra - Bardo Thodal - Prayer for death or annihilation
- Dawkins, Professor Richard - Unweaving the Rainbow - Personality
- Descartes, Rene - I think therefore I am
- Descartes, Rene - Modes of willing are all caused by some movement of the spirit
- Descartes, Rene - On desires and the ego
- Descartes, Rene - This 'I' is entirely and absolutely distinct from my body
- Dickens, Charles - Hearing his characters speak to him
- Dionysos - Villa of Mysteries Pompei - The crystal ball
- Dixon, Jeane - Explains why we are here
- Eleanor C Merry - The Flaming Door - Comments on the Pistis Sophia
- Eleanor Longden: The voices in my head
- Eleanor Merry - The Flaming Door
- Eliot, T S - Four Quartets - 14 Little Gidding II
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Character - Character is nature in highest form
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Character - On gods
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Over-soul - And the Will
- Emerson, Ralph Waldo - Over-Soul - The growths of genius
- Epictetus - The Enchiridion - 16, 17, 18
- Frater Albertus - Introduction to Alchemy 02
- Fraulein O
- Freddie Mercury - Made in Heaven
- Genesis 03 - The Fall
- Gerhardie, William - Resurrection - Afterthoughts 1
- Gershom Scholem – On the Kabbalah and its symbolism - Tikkun Hatsoth
- Godwin, Joscelyn - Music, Mysticism and Magic - On birth
- Goethe - Faust Part 1
- Grof, Dr Stanislav - A belief about birth
- Hawkes, Jacquetta – A Land – The unity of consciousness
- Hegel - Philosophy of Mind – Appetite or Instinctive Desire
- Hegel - Philosophy of Mind – Reason
- Hegel - Philosophy of Mind – Self consciousness
- Hume, David - Desires, Objectives and the Ego
- Hume, David - The Ego and Personality
- Huxley, Aldous - Misc. Quote - LSD and ego death
- Huxley, Aldous - Misc. Quote - The complexity of character
- James, William - The Confidences of a Psychical Researcher - Ego and Personality
- Jesus - The Gospel of Judas - Archons
- Jili, Abd al-Karim - Al-Kahf wa al-raqim - 041 Section 3
- Jili, Abd al-Karim - Burckhardt - 2 Extract from Universal Man
- John Addington Symonds - Describes the annihilation of the Self
- Jonah and his four other selves
- Kant, Immanuel - Dreams of a Spirit Seer - 03 Chapter One
- Kant, Immanuel - Quotes - What is Life?
- Kant, Immanuel - Quotes - Where is the soul?
- Kepler, Johannes - The soul bears within itself the idea of the zodiac
- Khan, Hazrat Inayat - Misc. Quote - The feeling of 'I-ness'
- Krishnamurti - The Network of Thought - Fear, the pursuit of pleasure, and the burden of greed and pain
- Krishnamurti - The Network of Thought - You, the ego… the me is just memory
- Leibniz - The Monadology - 04
- Lethbridge, T C - A Step in the Dark – The mind at large
- Levi-Strauss, Claude - Describes annihilation
- Lowell, James Russell - We see but half the causes of our deeds
- MacLaine, Shirley - Kevin 07
- MacLaine, Shirley - Kevin 09
- MacLaine, Shirley - On acting, inspiration, Reincarnation and Possession
- Maeterlinck, Maurice – Wisdom and Destiny – On Destiny
- Meister Eckhart - Selected writings - Abandon the whole of your will
- Meister Eckhart - Selected writings - Question all beliefs
- Meister Eckhart - Selected writings - The ego is bound up with fasting, holding vigil and ascetic practises
- Meister Eckhart - Selected writings - The wayless Way, where the Sons of God lose themselves
- Michaux, Henri - Plume
- Mircea Eliade - On Siberian shamanism Out of body to last heaven
- Monroe, Robert - Reviews his past lives
- Moody Blues - Of course you are my bright little star
- Myōe – Truly (such a thing as] one's own body does not [really] exist
- Neiye - Verse 04
- Nietzsche - Thus spake Zarathustra - Art thou a new strength and a new authority? A first motion?
- Nietzsche - Thus spake Zarathustra - As yet humanity hath not a goal
- North Whitehead, Alfred – 14 Co-creation and Temporary co-operation of organisms
- North Whitehead, Alfred – 15 Destruction of Temporary co-operation of organisms
- North Whitehead, Alfred – On Personality and multiple personality
- Pauli, Wolfgang - The World Clock Vision
- Personality and dementia
- Plato - Republic - Roles and Destiny
- Plato - Republic X - 04 Tale of Er
- Plato - Republic X - 06 Tale of Er
- Plotinus - The Enneads - A powerful frame, a healthy constitution
- Plotinus - The Enneads - Accruement takes place at birth
- Plotinus - The Enneads - How lies the course
- Plotinus - The Enneads - Just so the soul, entering this drama of the universe
- Plotinus - The Enneads - What is evil in the single soul will stand a good thing in the universal system
- Poimandres - Hermes Trismegistus
- Proust, Marcel - Notes to Sesame and Lilies - On the Ego
- Ramana Maharshi - Narasimha Swami - Absorption in the Self continued unbroken
- Rogo, D Scott - Leaving the Body - Contacting the Higher spirit for healing
- Rosicrucean - Thor Kiimaletho - 02 The fundamental beliefs
- Rumi - Mathwani - A voice came from God to Moses
- Russell, George William - Call not thy wanderer home as yet
- Russell, George William - My inner being is not one but many
- Russell, George William - Song and its Fountain
- S'RÎMAD BHÂGAVATAM – Canto 10, Chapter 03 – The birth of Krishna
- Schelling, F W J - Philosophical Inquiries into the Nature of Human Freedom – Personality, Destiny and the Great Work
- Schopenhauer, Arthur - The World as Will and Idea - Personality
- Schopenhauer, Arthur - The World as Will and Idea - Reducing desires
- Schrodinger, Erwin - Mind and Matter - Where is Mind
- Schrodinger, Erwin - Mind and Matter - Where is the Personality
- Schubert - Schwanengesang, D 957: no 13 Der Doppelgänger
- Schwarz, Jack - What is the meaning of life? Interview with Jack Schwarz
- Sellers, Peter - I Haven't Told Her, She Hasn't Told Me
- Sellers, Peter - I'm Alright Jack- Past life, Multiple Personality or Possession?
- Shah, Idries - A Perfumed Scorpion - Human well-being is the minimum, not the maximum, duty of humanity
- Shaikh Muhammad Karim Khan Kirmani - Irshad al-‘awamm - Higher spirit
- Shaivism - Concepts and symbols - Reincarnation and Destiny
- Shakespeare, William - As you like it - All the world's a stage
- Split personality after shell shock
- St Vincent - Talks about the teachings of Sai Baba & sings Actor
- Steiner, Rudolf - How to Know Higher Worlds - The understanding of the ecstatic
- Sterry, Peter - At our Birth, our Soul and Body are joined as Horses are put into a Waggon
- Stockhausen - Momente
- Swedenborg, Emanuel - The Infinite - Where is the intellect?
- Sybil and her many conscious selves
- Taoism - The body as a castle and city
- TED talk - Shekhar Kapur: 05 Transcript extract
- Teilhard de Chardin, Pierre - Pensees - Co-creation
- Tennyson, Alfred Lord - All at once
- Tennyson, Alfred Lord - In Memoriam A H H - The baby new to earth and sky
- The Book of Taliesin - The Battle Of the Trees - 06
- The Ceasing of Notions – 19 Annihilating the ‘I’
- The Ceasing of Notions – 26 Emmon at last understands
- The Haunting of the House of Commons
- The story of Louis V.... as recorded by Mr. Bourru and Mr. Burot in Changements de la personnalité
- The Sutra of Hui-Neng - Cities and castles
- The use of hypnosis in a deaf patient with multiple personality disorder
- Théodule-Armand Ribot - The Diseases of Memory - Higher spirit, Perceptions and Personalities
- Theophan the Recluse
- Tholey, Paul and LaBerge, Stephen - Effects of Destroying the Ego Core
- Tholey, Paul and LaBerge, Stephen - Perspectives of the Dream Figures
- TiKHAL – 5-MeO-DMT smoked - ego loss
- TiKHAL – Synthetic DMT smoked - Expansion and ego loss
- Tolstoy, Leo - Confessions - Know yourself
- Turvey, Vincent – The beginnings of Seership – 'I,' 'Me,' and ‘It’
- Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation – Dr Ian Stevenson – 03 The Case of Jasbir
- Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation – Dr Ian Stevenson – 04 The Case of Jasbir
- Twenty cases suggestive of reincarnation – Dr Ian Stevenson – 05 The Case of Sukla
- Tzu, Lao - Fame or Self: Which matters more
- Urantia Book - Paper 12 - The Universe of Universes - Higher spirit
- Vaughan, Dr Alan – A person as a spiritual entity makes his basic choices for the future before he is born. He enters the world with his destiny
- Vonnegut, Kurt - Harrison Bergeron
- W.Y. Evans-Wentz - The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries - The cocoon
- Wagner - Siegfried's Funeral March
- Waller, Edmund - Divine Poems - 04 Divine Love
- Wells, H G - On destiny and personality
- Wilcox, Ella Wheeler - It might have been
- Yeats, Georgie - A Vision - On masks
- Yeats, W B - Anima Mundi - Every soul is unique
- Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book III - Sutras 01 to 55
- Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book IV - 02. The Atman
- Yoga Sutras of Patanjali - Book IV - 11. to 34.
- Youtube video - Korean Shaman (무당) - Possession by the Spirit of Changun and riding the chaktu
- Zimmer, Dr Heinrich - On the mask
- Zohar - III 120b -121 - Mesirat nefesh